US northeast digs out after big snow

Passersby help push a taxi out of a snow drift in New York
after a blizzard pummelled the northeastern United States.
REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

The US Northeast has started digging itself out after a
blizzard dumped up to 40 inches of snow with hurricane force
winds, killing at least nine people and leaving hundreds of
thousands without power.

By early Sunday (local time), utility companies were
reporting roughly 350,000 customers still without electricity
across a nine-state region after the wet, heavy snow brought
down tree branches and power lines. About half a million had
been down as of late Saturday.

Air traffic began to return to normal Sunday after some 5,800
flights were cancelled Friday and Saturday, according to
Flightaware, a flight tracking service.

Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut,
and Long Island MacArthur Airport reopened on Sunday morning.
Both were closed on Saturday.

Boston's Logan International Airport reopened late on
Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Rare travel bans in Connecticut and Massachusetts were lifted
but roads throughout the region remained treacherous,
according to state transportation departments.

As the region recovered, another large winter storm building
across the Northern Plains was expected to leave a foot of
snow and bring high winds from Colorado to central Minnesota
into Monday, the National Weather Service said.

South Dakota was expected to be hardest hit, with winds
reaching 50 miles per hour (80 kph), creating white-out
conditions. The storm was expected to reach parts of
Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming and Wisconsin.

Friday and Saturday's mammoth storm stretched from the Great
Lakes to the Atlantic and covered several spots in the
Northeast with more than 3 feet (1 m) of snow. Connecticut,
Rhode Island and Massachusetts took the brunt of the
blizzard.

Hamden, Connecticut, had 40 inches and nearby Milford 38
inches, the National Weather Service said.

SOME TRANSIT STILL SUSPENDED

Amtrak said it planned to run a limited service between New
York and Boston on Sunday and a regular Sunday schedule from
New York to the state capital in Albany.

However, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the
Rhode Island Public Transit Authority and Connecticut Transit
said service would remain suspended Sunday.

Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins told WTNH
television on Saturday snow had fallen at a rate of 6 inches
(15 cm) an hour and even plows were getting stuck.

The storm dropped 31.9 inches (81 cm) of snow on Portland,
Maine, breaking a 1979 record, the weather service said.
Winds gusted to 83 miles per hour (134 km per hour) at
Cuttyhunk, New York, and brought down trees across the
region.

The storm contributed to at least five deaths in Connecticut
and two each in New York state and Boston, authorities said.
A motorist in New Hampshire also died when he went off a road
but authorities said his health may have been a factor in the
crash.

The two deaths in Boston were separate incidents of carbon
monoxide poisoning in cars, an 11-year-old boy and a man in
his early 20s. The boy had climbed into the family car to
keep warm while his father cleared snow. The engine was
running but the exhaust was blocked, said authorities.

There were also road rescues along the Long Island Expressway
from Friday night to Saturday morning, some using
snowmobiles. A baby girl was delivered early Saturday by
emergency services personnel in Worcester, Massachusetts.